ENTRY DESCRIPTION
I had noticed this women pass me by up the street and what I noticed first was the sad look on her face.

When I circled back around Hill and 6th street in downtown Los Angeles, she was crossing the street again and I hoped to capture the forlorn look on her face.

It’s the same kind of look that is becoming more frequent these days.

I quickly took out my Nikon F3 and snapped the picture, I didn't know if I got it. I was shooting Kodak TMax 400 with a Yellow Filter 12, so I was expecting it to be blown out, but I was surprised how well it came out.

When I started doing street photography, I was lost in what I was looking for in terms of my subject matter, but I think seeing this woman reflected some of my own internal feelings at the time, where I felt lost and displaced in what I wanted from life or how I could achieve it.

I think about what Bruce Gilden said about trying to find himself in his subjects and I think that is what we all do as photographers, consciously or unconsciously.

AUTHOR
Ghawam Kouchaki is a filmmaker and photographer based out of Los Angeles.

From a young age, he’s always been fascinated with telling stories through multiple mediums, starting from short stories about his dreams, filmmaking, or documenting life through his parent’s Minolta X-700.

After completing his first short film in high school, his passion for cinema grew and sent him down a path to follow in the footsteps of filmmakers he’s admired like Edward Yang, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Michael Mann, and Toshiaki Toyoda.

He is currently developing his first photo book based on his trips to Iran titled “The Last Summer”.

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